Foster Wilson — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Foster is an award-winning director, filmmaker, and Emergence Award Recipient. She earned her BFA at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied for 3 years with the Atlantic Theater Company under the tutelage of David Mamet, Chris Bauer, Scott Zigler, and Mary McCann, among others.

After more than a decade working in the industry as an actor, Foster co-founded Detroit Street Films, an independent film production company intent on building a robust community of filmmakers to collaborate on micro-budget films. In DSF’s inaugural year, the company produced over a dozen films, including Foster’s directorial debut: a gritty short about possessions and priorities titled BRICK & MOPSIE.

Foster’s most notable directing work to date is the award-winning short film MADE PUBLIC, an Emergence Award Recipient for Female Filmmakers, written by her husband Brian Leahy, and starring Jeanine Mason (Roswell, New Mexico) and Josh Zuckerman (90210). The film premiered in 2019 and has played at more than 25 festivals including Palm Springs, Cinequest, Cleveland, and many more. The film has received 13 nominations and 9 awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and the Audience Award at the Bentonville Film Festival. Foster also directed the short film, WAFFLES, also written by Leahy, which held its world premiere at the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival in Toronto. Since then, the film has screened at more than 25 festivals around the world, including Australia, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, India, and Hong Kong; the film has garnered 8 nominations and 4 wins on the festival circuit, including an Audience Award for Best Short Film.

Foster was one of six directors selected by Alliance of Women Directors for the inaugural AWD Short Film Initiative, creating a short film in collaboration with the Shoot ‘Em Up film series. The resulting film, titled MÍA, premiered at Disney Studios.

Additional credits include the short films MAGGIE THE CAT and PLATYPUS; the pilot presentation LOVE SCENES, LLC; and a four-part web series created with author Mara Altman titled GROSS ANATOMY. Foster has several projects in development, including the comedic short 5 STAGES OF GRIEF (2018 Shift Creative Fund Finalist) and the dark comedy feature LIVING WILL.

Foster is an alumna of the Ryan Murphy HALF Initiative, co-founder of Something Wilde Productions, member of the Los Angeles Women's Film Collective, and Board Member of the non-profit organization Moms-In-Film. She is repped by Verve Talent & Literary and Fourth Wall Management.

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